Several citizens return sans voting as names not in voters’ list

Sachin Biramane was in for a shock when he arrived at the polling booth to cast his vote. His name was missing from the voters’ list even as the names of his deceased parents continued to feature in it. Biramane wasn’t the only one facing this predicament as there were thousands of voters like him across the Khadakwasla segment of the Baramati Lok Sabha (LS) constituency who faced a similar situation when they arrived at the polling booths to cast their votes.

Biramane said, “From the last several years, I have been exercising my right to vote and even in the earlier Lok Sabha elections, I cast my vote. But today when I came to the voting booth at Vadgaon Dhayari, my name was not there. In fact, my parents are dead and I had submitted their death certificates to remove their names from the voters’ list but their names are still there in the list.”

Yogesh Wadhonkar who came to vote along with his wife, said, “Today, we took a half day from work and came to cast our votes and after checking the entire voters’ list, found that both our names were not in the list. It is not only a loss for voters but also for the candidates contesting the elections as the names of a large number of citizens were missing from the voters’ list.”

Since morning, there was a heavy rush of citizens arriving at polling stations across Sinhagad Road, Vadgaon Budruk, Dhayari, Narhe, Ambegaon, Katraj and other parts of the Baramati LS constituency. A large number of voters had to return home disappointed as their names were not in the voters’ list.

An election officer at one of the polling booths on condition of anonymity said, “Since morning, we have received complaints from over 100 citizens who had come for voting but had to return as their names were not in the voters’ list.”